Connecting with Ashita

Downloading Ashita

Once you have it, place it in a folder in your \Program Files directory. The executable will automatically extract itself and begin setup (so your desktop’s a bad place for this to happen). This could take a few minutes.

Ashita is ready to go.

Adding Nocturnal Souls

Click on the plus (add) icon in the bottom bar to add a new entry.

Fill out the configuration name, file, command, and script as below. This tells Ashita to connect to Nocturnal Souls, use the private server bootloader, and create a unique script for this server.

File:.\ffxi-bootmod\pol.exe

Command:--server connect.nocturnalsouls.net

Script:default.txt

Window and Advanced Options

These are our recommendations. Your mileage may vary depending on your screen resolution and system performance. Click on the Window options on the left bar.

Window Configurations

Windowed Mode is great if you have multiple monitors.

Show Border is typically unchecked unless you’re playing at a smaller resolution (windowed) than your monitor.

Window Resolutions

Window Size is typically set to the default native resolution of your monitor.

Startup Position remains -1,-1 (so the system pulls the default (which is starting at the top-left corner of the screen).

Background Size is where you can tweak based on your system. This is the super scaling aspect to give you a better, more refined image. In my case, a 1.5x ratio of my native resolution works well. If you have a powerhouse of a machine, crank it to 2x or if you’re on an ultrabook laptop, keep it at 1x.

Menu Size is a vital setting. The UI of FFXI is a separate layer to the background and foreground resolutions allowing you to customize how big the chat boxes, menus, and add-ons are. For me, a 0.75x ratio of my native resolution works great and is easy on the eyes.

Advanced

Simply, in most cases, don’t touch anything in here.

Game

Here you can customize the default settings of FFXI without having to use the weird POLConfig utilities that rarely even work. Again, test things out for yourself, but these have worked well on all ranges of computers.

Mip Mapping is maxed out. This is whether or not distant objects get substituted out for more blurrier textures. You don’t want that.

Bump Mapping is disabled. It’s never really worked well in this game and screws with the ambient lighting.

Base Gamma is to your personal tastes. I’ve found a good base gamma to be -0.5 for the room I game in.

Env. Animations is set to 2, the highest setting.

Texture Compression is set to 2 to use uncompressed textures (highest quality).

Map Compression is set to 1 to use uncompressed textures.

Font Compression is set to 2 to use High-Quality fonts.

Graphics Stabilization is set to 0 to disable it. This should //never// be required, but if your game constantly crashes, give it a shot.

Step 4: Done, let’s launch!

Click the paper/checkmark at the bottom to save your settings and then double-click the new Nocturnal Souls entry to begin!

You’ll see a console window open (the bootloader) prompting you to login or create a new account.

If this is the first time connecting, press 2 to create a new account with a username and password. Be sure to keep hold of these as they’re how you’ll get back in.

Once your account is created, press 1 to log in with your username and password. If authenticated, FFXI will start up and you can begin playing.